This is one of those horribly difficult posts to write.
Monday was the worst day of the whole conference so far for us. I (Isabel) spent the day careering around from one place to the next trying to pull strings that I don’t have, and just generally being entirely at the mercy of the UN process. (more…)
The good…
Today we’ve been busy attending, taking notes and summarising the main plenary sessions for Kiribati. The talks have been tense and amongst the inhuman UN language there have been tears and anger from the official negotiators. We witnessed the spokesperson from Tuvalu break down as he spoke in utter desperation to save his culture, community and livelihood. The future of his whole country is in the hands of a few. (more…)
You may be following the whirlwind of stories in the press that is engulfing Copenhagen. Unless you’re superhuman you’re probably confused, as are many delegates here. For a country that can’t send many negotiators, keeping up with the endless simultaneous meetings, working groups and documents becomes an impossible task. Kiribati, the island state we are currently working with, are in this position. So to keep us all up to speed on who is saying what we went to a useful briefing on the positions currently being advocated at Copenhagen. (more…)
So about 5 weeks ago I started studying Law at Bristol University for the first time. Oh.my.god. Yes, it’s much more difficult and time consuming than I had thought, or even planned! Bang goes most of my time basically, hence my lack of time to write. You’ll be glad to hear however that the last month hasn’t been totally steeped in legal jargon and visits to the library. There is an amazing group/society called the Bristol University Sustainability Team (BUST) who are doing some really exciting things. (more…)